COURT IN POPE PLOT WON'T EXTEND TRIAL TO HEAR TESTIMONY IN U.S.

By JOHN TAGLIABUE, Special to the New York Times

Published: January 15, 1986

ROME, Jan.14—
An Italian court trying seven men accused of plotting to assassinate Pope John Paul II refused today to extend the trial to hear testimony in New York about allegations that the Italian secret services fabricated evidence to implicate Bulgaria in the shooting.

The court also refused to subject the state's leading witness, Mehmet Ali Agca, to psychiatric tests. Mr. Agca's erratic and inconsistent testimony is widely believed to have weakened the Government's case against three Bulgarians and four Turks charged in the reported conspiracy.

The court reconvened on Friday after a holiday recess to take testimony from a French lawyer, Christian Roulette. Mr. Roulette was quoted earlier by the official Bulgarian press service as having said he had obtained documents from a former Italian intelligence agent, Francesco Pazienza, that explained how Italy's secret services enlisted Mr. Agca in a plan to blame Bulgaria for the plot to shoot the Pope.

According to the Bulgarian report, the documents were deposited in the safe of a Paris bank.

Documents' Existence Denied

But Mr. Pazienza, who is in jail in New York awaiting extradition to Italy on criminal charges, has denied such documents exist, and Mr. Roulette, questioned by the court on Friday, did likewise.

Mr. Roulette is the author of two books giving detailed exposition of the charge, frequently raised by Bulgaria and its Soviet bloc allies, that the Italian and American intelligence services, working with Turkish rightist activists, plotted the assassination of the Pope and subsequently blamed Bulgaria.

But the court of two judges and six jurors, after more than two hours of consultation, rejected a request by the public prosecutor to travel to New York to cross-examine Mr. Pazienza about such a plan.

In December, another Italian investigator, Ilario Martella, whose earlier investigation led to the present trial, went to New York to question Mr. Pazienza, and the transcript of his interrogation forms part of the court record. Judge Martella is now conducting a separate investigation into the possible involvement of further people, including right-wing Turkish extremists, in planning the attack on the Pope.

The public prosecutor, Antonio Marini, argued it was necessary for the court to cross-examine Mr. Pazienza on the specific charges relating to the present trial.

But in a decision read by the chief judge, Severino Santiapichi, the court said it viewed only two elements of Mr. Pazienza's testimony as relevant to the trial. One was the charge that Italian intelligence officers sought to enlist him in the effort to use Mr. Agca against Bulgaria. The other was Mr. Pazienza's allegation that in June 1982 United States customs officials observed in Florida a Turkish right-wing confederate of Mr. Agca who is wanted in several European countries for serious crimes, including murder and drug smuggling. U.S. Trip Ruled Out

The judge said the court would seek to clarify whether Mr. Pazienza was telling the truth and whether the Turk reportedly observed by the customs officials was one of the defendants in the trial here. But he said it would not travel to New York to do so.

Mr. Pazienza's charges are potentially embarrassing for the Italian and United States since he has implied repeatedly that Reagan Administration officials were also aware of the plan to involve Bulgaria in what was essentially a plot by anti-Christian, right-wing Turkish extremists, with the possible collusion of rightist Italian activists.

Bulgaria and its Soviet bloc allies have criticized the Italian investigation and the trial it produced as a plan by Western secret services, led by the Central Intelligence Agency, to smear Eastern European Communist governments.

The court, in unusual moves, has visited five European countries to take testimony since the trial began last May. But it has come under growing criticism for the mounting trial costs, and for the amount of time it is taking to reach a verdict.